Star light, star bright. First STARFISH yesterday in sight.
SEASTARS are always so much fun to see. This beautiful creature went right back in the calm, clear Gulf water where Linda and David (TN) found it while on our iLoveShelling adventure with Captiva Cruises yesterday.
I was also thrilled to see this gorgeous SHARKS EYE OPERCULUM that Jill (Peculiar, Missouri) found. She brought it over for me to identify and I think I went a little crazy… “Omigosh it’s perfect!”.
I always love when other beachcombers have an eye for the unusual pieces of beach bling and want to know what it is. She said she saw that cool swirl on it so she picked it up. Most people would have walked right over it… but not Jill! (check out our first one CLICK HERE -errr…. but its nowhere near as pretty as her’s).
I think Jill found that OPERCULUM because she has an eye for the small BIVALVES and likes to find shells she’s never found before. I think there are about 9 different species on her towel she brought to wrap them in for safe travels.
Jill’s not the only one that loves the bling and unusual, Shelly found all sorts of fab finds like FEATHERS, SEA URCHINS and huge shell pieces. Look at that happy smile on such a beautiful day at Cayo Costa Island!
The water was an amazing 75 degrees for Mac and Delta ( Los Angeles) to wade and scoop up a few treasures like LETTERED OLIVES and FIGHTING CONCHS. So much fun hanging out in the water with y’all!
We all found oodles of live OLIVES in the water and on the beach that we had to put back where we found them… but we were also lucky enough to find a few really glossy empty ones too.
Sue and Jens from NC were happy to find a few OLIVES and a stunning LIGHTNING WHELK too.
And PURPLISH TAGELUS shells too. These were scattered all along the mid tied wrack line on the beach so once we found one, we followed the same tide line to find so many more.
That was actually the same shell line that Krys and Mandy (Richmond, Virginia) found lots of dried out SEA URCHINS. They also found some sweet little COMB BITTERSWEETS with amazing patterns but my photo just didn’t turn out well. (I’m going to look for those COMB BITTERSWEETS the next time on Cayo Costa)
We were barely off the boat stepping foot on the beach when Louisette and Michael (from Massachusettes) found a pile of shells they started scooping up. Louisette is a Sailor’s Valentine artist so she was in heaven with all of the common ARKS, VENUS shells, JINGLES and KITTENS PAWS all the same size for her work.
Local shellers Cazzie and Beth (Fort Myers Beach) found showed me their fave shells they found- Cazzie with a CONCH and Beth with a juvie lemon yellow HORSE CONCH.
So Cazzie realized that he had never seen this shell ever before on our beaches … hmmmm… Yep- he was right. We don’t normally find these type CONCHS on our beaches. It’s what I call a “WEDDING SHELL” which is a shell from the other side of the planet that someone bought in a shell shop and threw out on the beach to decorate or something (for whole story- CLICK HERE). I haven’t seen that many WEDDING SHELLS at Cayo Costa so it was pretty fun to see this one and know it is a very common shell in Okinawa, Japan– we saw them on every single beach when we visited there. When I asked Cazzie what his favorite shell of the day was… he showed me the WEDDING SHELL. :)
Rena brought her friend Nancy (Boston) who had never even heard the term “sheller” before this trip- A newbie! She might even consider herself a sheller now? haha Hopefully!
I had a twin on our cruise! Susan and I showed up with the same outfits on- same hat and iLoveShelling tee shirt. She and her husband Stuart were on a cruise last year with us when Stuart found an OLIVE without a tip. She took that OLIVE shell to Congress Jewelers with her certificate she received on our iLoveShelling trip and had this necklace made she has on this the next photo. A wonderful memory from last year- i LOVE that!!!! So much fun to see y’all.
Just like Susan and Stuart, each passenger on this and all iLoveShelling cruises received a $25 gift certificate from Congress Jewelers (formerly Sealife By Congress) to use in their store. Thank you Congress Jewelers for being so generous with the iLoveShelling community!
Join us! For future dates CLICK HERE
I like you Pam I love shelling like you I come with my grandma I am 8years old I will be in Florida in the summer vacation and we have a lot of shellś I will show you them Pam by❤️
Pam, Stuart and I loved coming on our second shelling cruise with you! He spent so much time searching for live olives to rescue that he came away with very few shells to take home! LOL! I would love to have a copy of the selfie we took together, since you and I were “twins” that day. If you still have the pic, could you email it to me? Btw, we found 3 sand dollars on FMB yesterday!
Omg Susan!!!! I love that photo and I don’t know why it didnt show up on my post!!!! This afternoon lm going to add that to this post- you can take it from the blog here. I loved my pic with my TWIN!!!!! Xoxo
Thanks for adding our “twin” pic, Pam! We stopped by Congress Jewelers today and used our gift certificates, too.
Will be enjoying Sanibel for 10 days in March. Just made reservations for your March 9 shelling cruise. We were the first ones. Can’t wait!
I love seeing all the shells people find, and I love seeing the smiles on their faces. Now that you’ve posted new shelling cruise dates, I’m hoping I can come sometime in April or May to meet you and find some awesome shells! (I’m keeping my fingers crossed.)
No matter how many times I find an Olive shell or see photos of one…I know they’re common…they’re still one of my most favorite shells. They’re usually just so shiny and pretty–just gorgeous!!
Hey Pam, what is that dark pink bivalve shell in the lower left-hand corner of the paper towel that has Jill’s small bivalves on it?
Can’t quite work out the ID on that one…
Ed and I will be arriving on Sanibel on Wednesday evening. :)
Hi Susan- it’s a very pretty cancellate semele. Jill has a good eye, right? :) hope to see you!
Pam,
I will be coming down in January, and we would like to go out on the Big Hickory Island trip that you have listed for 01/21/16. Do you know what there cancellation rules are? I have emailed them with no response. We will be driving down from Md so if the weather is bad we won’t come so if we pay for the cruise, and can’t make it do we lose the money? Please let us know so we can plan accordingly. Thanks, Hunter
Hi Hunter, Rest assured that if there is any unsafe weather effecting the boat trip, the captain won’t leave the dock. I haven’t talked to them directly but Ive put in a call to them to make sure of the exact procedure. I will get back to you with the info today.
Pam,
I actually wasn’t worried about your weather. My concern was the weather up north that might make it difficult to get down there. We are driving so if the weather is bad we would not come. I did speak with the cruise people today, and they said that they don’t charge you until the day of the cruise so you just need to give them a 24 hour notice that you won’t be coming so they don’t charge you. Take care, and hope to finally meet you on 01/21/16. Hunter
So glad Susan asked about the cancellate semele, I’ve been trying to figure it out as well! We are looking forward to the trip to Big Hickory next week.
Pam, Pretty sure that was the lovely Delta B. on that cruise…been a long time fan of hers and her work for many years. Was so good to see her and her husband…and to see them out doing something so fun and so relaxing! Thanks for sharing all the pretty things you share on this blog, I love it! I blog from beautiful Charleston, SC….stop in sometime!
I love seeing all the happy people and their shell findings. I will be there in February and cannot wait.
Can anyone tell me or post where you can purchase the net scoops and netting bags to hold your shells? I want to purchase them when I get there and have no idea where to get them.
Thanks Pam, for all the info you put into this site. I love this site!!!!!